THE SOUTHERN CATSKILLS 



thrush. A better name would have been Slide Moun- 

 tain thrush, as the bird so far has been found only 

 on this mountain. 1 I did not see or hear it upon the 

 Wittenberg, which is only a few miles distant, and 

 only two hundred feet lower. In its appearance to 

 the eye among the trees, one would not distinguish it 

 from the gray-cheeked thrush of Baird, or the olive- 

 backed thrush, but its song is totally different. The 

 moment I heard it I said, "There is a new bird, 

 a new thrush," for the quality of all thrush songs 

 is the same. A moment more, and I knew it was 

 Bicknell's thrush. The song is in a minor key, finer, 

 more attenuated, and more under the breath than 

 that of any other thrush. It seemed as if the bird 

 was blowing in a delicate, slender, golden tube, so 

 fine and yet so flute-like and resonant the song ap- 

 peared. At times it was like a musical whisper of 

 great sweetness and power. The birds were numer- 

 ous about the summit, but we saw them nowhere 

 else. No other thrush was seen, though a few 

 times during our stay I caught a mere echo of the 

 hermit's song far down the mountain-side. A bird 

 I was not prepared to see or to hear was the black- 

 poll warbler, a bird usually found much farther 

 north, but here it was, amid the balsam firs, uttering 

 its simple, lisping song. 



1 Bicknell's thrush tarns out to be the more southern form of 

 the gray-cheeked thrush, and is found on the higher mountains of 

 New York and New England. 



